All the time in the world

Another few days of training out of the way and some more thoughts on the issues facing print journos as they make the move to online video.

I ask all the participants what they want out of the course. A common response has been: “Make video that looks professional”. For them, that means video like they see on the TV. Just let me add here, that I don’t for one minute equate that with the debate around wanting to take over from TV. Journalist want the content they produce to be representative of their professionalism. They won’t settle for casual camcorder user when they see their counterparts in TV producing content of a much higher quality.

It doesn’t take them long to realise that they may not have understood just how much time goes in to making even the shortest of TV packages.That time element becomes an issue for many journalists making the move to video. They worry about the time it takes to get up to speed with the kit. They are concerned at the lack time needed to practice skills.

Everything about the web suggests that it should be quick and easy. We have been educated to believe that the technology makes it that way. In some respects it does. But the reality is that most of the complexity and skills development in video is tied up in the part of the process before uploading.

But uploading the video to the web is equivalent to sticking a tape in a tape machine and pressing play. It’s the last, and easiest part in a time consuming but rewarding process. This is something that people in newspaper management need to realise.

More and more journalists are engaging with the realities of how much time it takes to make good content online. The management are only seeing the ease of distribution. If the management don’t realise the importance of investing time as well as money in their newsroom development plans, they may find that they have all the time in the world to regret it.